Back to the books, classes and struggles with the online systems onboard.  We stop for refueling but cannot disembark in Singapore.  There is a terrorist alert in the Malacca Strait and the crew gets out the big water hoses on the decks as a precaution.  For a while we see aircraft overhead and a couple of Indonesian Coast Guard boats at stem and stern.

We have some extra time so the Captain stops the engines as we near the Nicobar Islands, an island group with a population that has consistently resisted colonization or development of any kind.  They suffered extensive damage from the 2004 tsunami with hundreds of people killed.  We catch view of a couple of the islands during daylight hours.  After we circle the largest island, including a large shipwreck on one end, we get back on course.  Some of the faculty members bemoan the loss for science because the islanders do not welcome researchers; I say more power to the natives for knowing their own minds.  There is a wide range and good mix of opinions and expertise on the ship.  For the most part, intelligent argument is welcome.

We still have some time so we drift to India through the Bay of Bengal.  How sublime that sounds.